Kings do not bow down to others, but are bowed down to. They do not wait upon their servants, their servants wait upon them. They do not stand by while decisions are made, they make the decisions. So why, in Shakespeare's King Lear, is this standard of kings and their entitlements and duties done away with? And how does this have anything to do with charity?
Okay, so the charity part might sound like a stretch right now, but let me get to it in a little bit, after I've explained some things. First of all, Lear's tragic flaw is pride, a characteristic we often associate with kings in general. Pride, also, is the opposite of humility, and both cannot exist at the same time. At the beginning of the play, Lear is as far away from humility as a man can be. He may think his actions of slicing up his kingdom and dishing it off to his daughters is very charitable and humble indeed, but his intentions are all wrong. In return for his daughters answering the question "How much do you love me?" he gives them a piece of land, the size according to the love his daughters express to him. By attempting to quantifying love, Lear is showcasing his hubris perfectly. Little does he know, two of the daughters that say they love him "more than than word can wield the/matter,/Dearer than eyesight, space and liberty,/No less than life, with grace, health, beauty, honor...", will be the ones who banish him from the kingdom and seek to kill him. With this realization, after both daughters (Goneril and Regan) kick him out of their own homes, Lear goes mad. As in insane. He is so abhorred by his daughter's treatment of a king, he becomes raving mad. At this point (read carefully now, because this is the part that actually connects to charity) Lear begins to let go of his pride, and humility settles in. He literally sheds his kingly, fancy clothes, and strips down to the clothes of a beggar, humbling himself to the extent not only mentally, but physically as well. Ironically enough, this is when charity also becomes present in Lear's actions to his servants, the Fool and a disguised Kent, "Come on, my boy. How dost, my boy? Art cold?". As soon as his pride is gone, though he is mad, humility allows Lear to be charitable towards those around him, despite any sort of social standing.
May I be so bold as to connect this to charity today. The charity we do should hold no bounds as to who. We should not think ourselves better than anyone else according to "social standing". With charity, social status should not even exist. Once we are able to humble 0urselves, and not let the flaw of pride get in the way of our serving others, charity will become significantly more present in our lives.
